No. 4 Lightweight Crew Looks for Fifth-Straight Goldthwait Cup

The Crimson returns to the Charles to face two top-five Ivy League foes.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – No. 4 Harvard lightweight crew returns to the Charles River this weekend to take on No. 2 Yale and No. 5 Princeton in the 89th annual Goldthwait Cup. All five races will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network, weather pending, with Joe Finelli '02 on the call.

Last Time Out Harvard took all three races from Georgetown on Carnegie Lake Sunday, a day after winning its sixth-straight Haines Cup. The Crimson edged Navy by nearly a boat length in the win. The varsity eight, led by stroke Alexander Bonorris and coxswain Shane Bouchard, clocked a time of 6:05.3 to finish just ahead of Navy (6:08.0).

In the Polls Harvard remains at No. 4 in the USRowing poll for the second-straight week, as Ivy League teams make up the first five spots. Cornell holds the No. 1 position, followed by No. 2 Yale and No. 3 Columbia. Princeton sits behind Harvard at fifth overall. The Crimson opened the season at No. 1.

The Goldthwait Cup In its 89th season, the Goldthwait Cup pits Harvard vs. Princeton and Yale. The Crimson has won the series 44 times, including eight of the last 11 tries and four-straight. Harvard has won the Goldthwait Cup 42 times, including six times in the last nine years. Princeton (25 wins) won in 2008 and '09, while Yale (19 wins) last took the trophy in 2006. The cup was first presented in 1925 but was awarded retroactively back to 1922, the year of the first HYP lightweight race.

Scouting Princeton No. 5 Princeton defeated Penn and Georgetown by open water last Saturday, moving to 4-2 on the season. In his fifth season with the Princeton lights, head coach Marty Crotty earned an EARC and IRA national championship in 2010.

Scouting Yale Yale, moving up a spot to No. 2 in this week's USRowing poll, swept Dartmouth and MIT at home a week ago. The Y150 Alumni Head Coach of Lightweight Crew Andy Card began his 26th year with the Bulldogs in 2014.

In the Launch Michiel Bartman, with the Radcliffe lightweight crew team for the last two years, moved across the river on Sept 7, when he was announced as the Friends of Harvard Lightweight Rowing Coach for Men's Lightweight Crew. An Olympic champion, a three-time Olympic medalist and a 15-year coaching veteran, Bartman improved the Black and White's performance in each of his first two seasons.

Last Season Harvard completed its second-straight perfect collegiate season with the program's ninth national championship in 2013. The Crimson also won the lightweight four race for a sweep of the two lightweight events at the regatta. Harvard held off a surging Yale boat to finish the course in 5:54.221, just over one second ahead of the Bulldogs.

Up Next Harvard, winners of the last three-straight EARC Sprints crowns, will head to Worcester, Mass., and Lake Quinsigamond Saturday, May 18.